Whence redheads?

[mangeorge]

Are all (natural) redheads descended from Irish and/or Scotish cave people?
Peace,
mangeorge
BTW, I did search here. The SDMB runneth over with redhead stuff, and I tire.

[Shagnasty]

I won't judge but Wikipedia does have a good article on the origins of red hair including the cause and worldwide distribution. Red hair isn't exclusive to Ireland or Scotland by any means.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair

[mangeorge]

Thanks for the interesting link. Shagnasty. It led me to this;
http://genome.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTD020874.html.
I quote;
There is a widespread curiosity about red hair, and we are often asked questions about colouration – only some of which we have answers to. When were the first red heads? (Red-haired variants of the MC1R gene probably arose about 20-40 000 years ago.) What is the genetic relationship between bright red, strawberry blonde and auburn hair? (Not entirely clear as yet.) And is the red hair gene a 'Celtic gene' – as is widely supposed? (Not really, but it is safe to say that – a few rare exceptions aside - all red heads are MC1R variants that derive from European populations; the prevalence of these alleles is highest in Celtic countries.
Makes sense.